Sharp Rifling?

[walley]

I've got a rifle that's cutting a patch in two
small spots when fired. It also scratches the
ramrod up pretty good when loading. It seems to
be quite sharp at the muzzel compared to my other
rifles.

Questions:
(1). How do you check for sharp rifling?
What signs do you look or feel for?
(2). What's the safest and best method used
for honeing or polishing the bore?
(3). How do you know how many strokes to use
through the bore, or when the job is complete?
(4). What do you use to clean the bore after
your through?
This will be my first attempt at this.

Appreciate any help guys.

 

[MSW]

ka-boom --

how old (or new, depending on your outlook) is the rifle?

is the pattern tight enough to do what you want to to do with this particular gun?

is this something you can live with, or is it one of those 'little things' that just drives you to distraction?

there are a number of things you might try:

keep shooting the rifle- if this problem cropped up at your first session at the range, it may resolve as the barrel wears in. (intuitively, i doubt it, but it's as good an excuse as any to get to the range and launch some lead and, who knows, it might work despite my uninformend misgivings.)

if the sharp bit is very close to the muzzle, you might try coning the piece. Jim Woods makes a tool which will allow you to do this. you'll have to remove the barrel from the stock, but other that that, it's very easy. the last time i bought a coning tool from Mr. Woods, it was about thirty five dollars. this may solve the sharp lands, and it will make the rifle easier to load. despite what you may hear, i do not believe that coneing a muzzle effects the accuracy one way or the other.

if that doesn't work, and you can get the breechplug out, you may want to lapp the barrel. do a search on this- there are several good threads in this site about barrel lapping, but the removal of a breechplug can be daunting, to say the least.

good luck

MSW

 

[LRB]

You can try 0000 steel wool on a cleaning rod first, but you may need to lap it.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If it is just at the edige of the muzzle, you can remove the sharp edge by using fine emery cloth back by some tool handle to rotate around the muzzle. To avoid doing the muzzle unevenly, rotate both the tool and the barrel as you do this, in opposite directions.

If the burrs or sharp edge are further down, It will be worth getting some lapping compounds at your local Auto supply house, and then using tight patches to lap the barrel to remove the edges. Some people run a lead ball down the barrel, then pull it with their ball puller jag, and lap with it. It is put in the barrel on top of a patch that is already impregnated with lapping compound. No question that this works, but it is a lot of work. You might want to draft a couple of friends to help you with this, if you choose to go that route. When you go from course, to fine lapping compounds, the barrel will be smoothed its whole length, and the sharp edges removed. It will thereafter be easier to load, and easier to clean, and shoot very well to boot. You wll probably need to use a good short starter and a mallet to get the ball and patch going dowh the barrel, and of course, screwing a ball puller jag is always so much fun, but it will smooth that barrel and remove the burrs.

 

[walley]

Paul,
Do you think if I drilled a hole through the
center of a ball, and put a 10/32" threaded
machine screw through it, then screwed my
cleaning rod on to that would this work? Or do
you think the machine screw may be too soft and
pull apart? I don't have a ball puller on hand
at the moment, and looking for options.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I think the threads on the 10/32 are too fine for this kind of thing. Lead is too soft to hold with such a shallow thread. That is why the ball pullers are built on wood screws, and not machine screws. I would get the ball puller and use it. It could help screwing the ball puller in if you did drill just a small hole- like 1/16 inch- in the ball, but then you would have to be sure to center that ball so that the hole is in line with the barrel, for the screw to go in properly. The benefit of using the wood screw style ball puller is that it pushes and mishapes the ball as the screw is driven into the lead, forcing lead to the side to form a more oval projectile, and focing the cleaning patch containing the lapping compound into the grooves. This then allows the scrubbing of the barrel to evenly take a minute amount of metal off all the lands, and grooves, and rids you of those burrs that are cutting the patch. Expect the patch to come out black with the oxidized residue of the steel removed by the lapping compound. Someone just recently described doing this process here to remove the chatter marks on the tops of the lands of a new barrel he received, and I thought it might be worth mentioning. I have done the same technique using JB bore cleaner, and it really helped the barrel I was working on. I ned to break down and buy the lapping compounds, so I have them on hand. Seems that whenever I need to lap a barrel, its Saturday night, and the stores are closed until Monday!

 

[paulvallandigham]

I think the threads on the 10/32 are too fine for this kind of thing. Lead is too soft to hold with such a shallow thread. That is why the ball pullers are built on wood screws, and not machine screws. I would get the ball puller and use it. It could help screwing the ball puller in if you did drill just a small hole- like 1/16 inch- in the ball, but then you would have to be sure to center that ball so that the hole is in line with the barrel, for the screw to go in properly. The benefit of using the wood screw style ball puller is that it pushes and mishapes the ball as the screw is driven into the lead, forcing lead to the side to form a more oval projectile, and focing the cleaning patch containing the lapping compound into the grooves. This then allows the scrubbing of the barrel to evenly take a minute amount of metal off all the lands, and grooves, and rids you of those burrs that are cutting the patch. Expect the patch to come out black with the oxidized residue of the steel removed by the lapping compound. Someone just recently described doing this process here to remove the chatter marks on the tops of the lands of a new barrel he received, and I thought it might be worth mentioning. I have done the same technique using JB bore cleaner, and it really helped the barrel I was working on. I ned to break down and buy the lapping compounds, so I have them on hand. Seems that whenever I need to lap a barrel, its Saturday night, and the stores are closed until Monday!

 

[Pork Chop]

Paul,

I think you missed what he was saying. He said drill a hole THROUGH the ball and use a scre THROUGH the ball to secure it to the rod. The ball would not be retained by the threads, but rather by the head of the screw.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Thanks, Pork Chop, I didn't understand him to be saying that.

The problem I see with that is that you get poor distribution or pushing out of the lead ball against the patching soaked in lapping compound, and therefore you are not going to get as good a lap as you would with a ball puller. I would put a washer under that screwhead to help distribute forces and not lose that screwhead from all the pressure it will be under during the lapping.

I also would be using my stainless steel range rod for this kind of thing, instead of my hickory ramrod that goes with the rifle.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Thanks, Pork Chop, I didn't understand him to be saying that.

The problem I see with that is that you get poor distribution or pushing out of the lead ball against the patching soaked in lapping compound, and therefore you are not going to get as good a lap as you would with a ball puller. I would put a washer under that screwhead to help distribute forces and not lose that screwhead from all the pressure it will be under during the lapping.

 

I've got a rifle that used to cut patches, and I used Don Getz's scotch brite method for lapping. Easy and it worked like a charm. You can look it up here in the archives, I believe.

I took the ramrod with a jag and patch over the end. Then cover about a 4" section above the jag with double stick tape and stick on a piece of green scotch brite pad cut to fit. Lube it lightly and go to town on the barrel with it. The jag and patch will keep it from slipping off the end of the rod. You're gonna have a hard time doing damage to the barrel this way, but it will smooth the rough edges and stop the patch cutting. Lap for a while, then swab with a tight patch and inspect for cuts. Lap until you don't get any more cuts with the swabbing. Clean it well when you're done. I think it took about 15-20 minutes and I've never cut a patch since. Still shoots well enough to take a nice buck antelope about 3 weeks ago. I suppose it works good if you ever get rust in the bore too.

Sean